Hunchback of the Morgue (1973) User Reviews

Nice Naschy film with good acting as hunchback Gotho and lots of blood and guts

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 1 March 2011]

A poor unfortunate hunchback named Gotho (Paul Naschy or Jacinto Molina ) whom the little boys hurl stones and in charge of the Morgue of a hospital Feldkirch falls in love with an ill girl who happens to be the only person who is kind to him and he cares her . Each day he brings her flowers until that the sickly young deceases. He never really believes her death , but one day she sadly dies as he thinks she is just sleeping. The girl eventually ends up at the morgue hospital Feldkirch where she is being ready for burial. Naschy's character flips out at the desecration of the girl's body and kills two autopsy's helpers , starting a murderous spree , being his first victim a student . The police begins to look for him and two Inspectors (Manuel De Blas , Antonio Pica )are investigating the deeds . This is when the Hunchback meets up with a mad scientist ( Albert Dalbes) who is helped by his assistant (Vic Winner) whose girlfriend (Maria Pershy) rules the girls reformatory . Gotho asks for help the doctor whose work isn't accepted by the general society to relive the body his lover . The megalomaniac scientist accepts in change of Gotho assists him on his experiments bringing to life a strange creature . The doctor Horla ( this name is homage to Guy De Maupassant's novel title El Horla) is a prestigious scientific , he promises the Hunchback that would re-animate the girl's body if the Hunchback brings him fresh body-parts from the graveyard and live victims. Gotho kidnaps and kills girls from a nearly reformatory . The doctor uses the parts to create a horrible creature and the experiments are realized in tunnels and caves from Inquisition time. The mad doctor pretends on feed his monster with human beings . But the hunchback will terminate with the sinister plans of the malicious doctor .

It's a delirious story about ¨amour fou¨ with multiples literary references , partially based on writings of known writers as Lovecraft , Mauspassant , Burne Jones , Edgar Allan Poe , among others ; all of them thrown in . It results to be a strong tale as well as sensible flick with melodramatic elements in which Gotho falls in love with a sickly young and a gorgeous Rosanna Yanni . Very good performance of Naschy as hunchback with below average intelligence who works at the morgue. Naschy deservedly won the prize George Melies the best performance in Fantastic Festival of Paris and other several prizes . Creepy and eerie images as when authentic rats attack Nashy and turned to be very difficult the filmmaking . The picture contains a crazy love story , but also lots of blood and gore as when Gotho stabs and decapitates the men in one of the several scenes of gore in the movie . It's a modern reprise of the stories of various writers as Necronomicon's H.P.Lovecraft , Robert Stevenson's Body snatchers , Mary Shelley's Frankestein and touches of Victor Hugo's Hunchback . Flawed but interesting screenplay by Jacinto Molina who blends diverse themes . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Raul Perez Cubero , furthermore atmospheric score by Carmelo Bernaola . Appropriate sets and production design by Cubero and Galicia who worked in many Spaghetti Western . The picture is professionally directed by Javier Aguirre . Rating : Good , it will appeal to mad-cults movies and Naschy fans ; it's one of the best films .

Interesting Spanish horror effort

[The_Void · 7/10 · 21 October 2007]

Paul Naschy made a hell of a lot of Spanish horror films, many of them were not all that good; but there are a few gems among his vast body of work, and The Rue Morgue Massacre is certainly one of his better efforts. The film is something like a Spanish version of Hammer Horror; the style of it actually reminded me a lot of the final Hammer Frankenstein flick 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell', which was released a year later than this film. Most of The Rue Morgue Massacre takes place in underground catacombs, and director Javier Aguirre springs his atmosphere from there. The plot is a tale consisting of two main themes; social rejection and mad science, and we focus on 'Gotho' (Paul Naschy) - a hunchback with no friends other than a sick young girl. Gotho's life is miserable, and it gets more so when his only friend in the world dies. Gotho believes her to be sleeping, and this is capitalised on by a mad doctor who promises to wake her if Gotho helps him with experiments, which focus on creating new life...

The film doesn't feature a great deal of gore, but it is a very nasty flick. Most of the action centres around corpses and body parts, which helps to give it a nasty atmosphere and this is increased by the dreary set design, which almost gives the viewer the impression that the film is taking place in hell. The plot itself runs rather slowly, though the film never gets boring as there's always enough going on to keep the audience intrigued. Paul Naschy is a varied actor, though sometimes his performances aren't very good. He fits into the role of the hunchback well in this film, however, and actually manages to generate some sympathy in spite of the fact that his character is a murderer. The most interesting element of the plot is, of course, the whole thing surrounding the monster that the mad scientist is trying to create. This subplot is fairly well done; what we get to see looks interesting, though it has to be said that the plot turns out to be disappointing when we finally get to see the monster at the end. However, this is still a very interesting effort and I can certainly recommend it.

A gory, Gothic, trashy Naschy classic.

[BA_Harrison · 7/10 · 23 October 2012]

A surprisingly jaunty theme tune introduces what proves to be one of Paul Naschy's more exploitative and downbeat movies, a gory Gothic tragedy in which the Spanish horror star plays Gotho, a hunchbacked morgue attendant in love with a terminally ill girl named Ilse (María Elena Arpón). When Ilse finally pops her clogs, a grief stricken Gotho steals her body (after brutally killing the doctors who try to half-inch her necklace), and takes her to a subterranean hideaway where he assists a trio of slightly mad scientists to construct a laboratory (in record time) with which they can create life, a process that requires a continuous supply of fresh body parts...

Taking its cues from the classic horror novels of Victor Hugo and Mary Shelley, The Hunchback of the Morgue is full of irresistibly silly horror clichés—a sympathetic 'monster', a dusty Spanish Inquisition torture chamber, grave-robbing by moonlight, a sulphuric acid pit—and also benefits from some delightfully tacky special effects: a gory decapitation, a gutsy evisceration, assorted dismemberment, Ilse's corpse being devoured by rats (which, in a shocking moment of genuine animal cruelty, are set on fire by Gotho), and a delightfully daft man-made creature that consumes everything from live frogs to human heads, and ends up looking like a giant walking turd.

It all adds up to a whole lot of demented fun, easily the most entertaining Naschy film I've seen so far.

Seminal Spanish Grotesquerie.

[Legba-Invocations · 8 July 2007]

Even though it doesn't feature one, I can't think of a better example than HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE for a film capturing an all-encompassing feeling of atmosphere and oddity that surrounded those side show carnivals that were equal parts curiosity, repulsion, and pathos for the things paraded on display. FREAKS has the revenge tale morality of its real life freaks covered, carrying with them a sense of uneasy understanding and likability. But HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE is more designed like one of those things in a jar that pits your stomach against your lunch like it used to when you saw a preserved human limb suspended in a laboratory vat, while also being inspired by Naschy's own unnerving personal experience with a miss-fortuned humpback. There is no denying the exploitative nature of the attractions.

HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE invites the viewer from its opening polka like musical theme, to a seemingly sleepy little Austrian town in the fall or summer depending on what version you see, but it was shot in the summer. Paul Naschy plays the titular hunchback Gotho, who works at the local morgue 'cleaning' up and falls in love with Ilsa, a young women at the infirmary who eventually dies. He meets a deranged scientist who promises to help bring Gotho's love back if he'll supply his experiment - in Burke and Hare fashion - with fresh cadaver parts.

Like director Javier Aguirre's other Naschy vehicle COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE, the star is painted as sympathetic and world weary from his lot in life, but who's prone to indefensible acts with corpses also, and like a malignancy his madness grows from his obsession to restore Ilsa. The film works off this to a delirious pitch shifting from sick dismemberment, heart felt romanticism, obligatory female nudity, and scaling stunt theatrics at the drop of a hat; with Naschy supplying one of his most physical performances. Cobble this with the authentic air of subterranean catacombs from The Crusades as a backdrop for the depravity that poses a genuine stench of decay and mystery, as science takes the place of religion blinded by its own power, and shot in an expressionistic style for optimum effect.

The film never loses sight that it's an anomaly of the absurd though, embracing it to the very end when the thing in the jar breaks loose in a folly of gelatinous mass. Whatever it is hardly matters, its fitful existence doomed by the hands of its creator. A suitable hodge-podge of every mad doctor film that came before it, Hugo's Quasimodo, with characteristic elements of over the top dramatics and carnality that signified Naschy's unbridled charm.

Just pull back the curtain...

9/10

Naschy Does Hunchback

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 3 November 2017]

Paul Naschy plays a hunchback with below average intelligence who works at the morgue. He is in love with a sickly girl who happens to be the only person who is kind to him.

Naschy, who also wrote the script, seems to be inspired by a number of sources. Some have said the central inspiration is "Beauty and the Beast", given the romance between a deformed man and a beautiful young woman. But more obvious sources seem to be "Hunchback of Notre Dame" (with Quasimodo and Esmeralda) and "Frankenstein", though this time the story o told from the point of view of the mad scientist's assistant.

Director Javier Aguirre at this point in his career was known for experimental work, but had also worked with Paul Naschy on the slightly better-known "Count Dracula's Great Love" (1973) earlier the same year. In fact, "Hunchback" came about in part because of a delay on "Great Love" due to a car accident. I hope that over the longer run, the better-known film becomes "Hunchback", because there are some crazy scenes in here.

We start with a crafted miniature model of a Bavarian town, which you have to give them credit for. (The non-model village shots are in Vielha e Mijaran, Catalonia.) And then the makeup. Sure, it does not take much to make a hunch. But some of the other nastiness, especially the mad scientist's creation, are in many ways way ahead of their time.

The realism goes above and beyond what we typically see in films of this type. For one thing, the corpses are allegedly real and Naschy was allowed to cut into them and use them as they pleased. Exactly how that permission was granted seems like a story in itself. But also the rat sequences. There exists a story that some of the rats are really guinea pigs colored to look like rats, but that seems hard to believe -- the two are very distinct looking to anyone familiar with both rodents. Regardless, having so many rodents crawl on multiple actors in abundance had to be a challenge. Even tame, friendly rats would make most people uncomfortable in such huge numbers.

For his role as Gotho, Naschy won the Georges Meliés Best Actor Award for his portrayal from the International Festival of Fantastic and Science-Fiction Cinema of Paris in 1973. According to Mirek Lipinski, Naschy at one point shared the stage with both Peter Cushing and Terence Fisher. If only a photo existed of this powerful trio!

The Scream! Factory Blu-ray (2017) has everything we could want really. The film in both Spanish and English, audio commentary from Naschy experts, and a booklet of valuable information to complement the commentary.

Good, but not because of intended purposes...

[markovd111 · 6/10 · 28 December 2022]

"El jorobado de la Morgue" is a good movie, but ironically not as a horror movie, but as a spinoff to a classic tale of "The Hunback of Notre-Dame". The scenes depicting romance between Gotho and the ladies are probably the best in the whole movie. The horror part of the movie works, but is nothing special and you really shouldn't watch this movie if you wish to be scared. It's an interesting modern take on the already mentioned tale and a nice meal for hardcore horror movie gourmets, but for casuals this movie is an easy miss, so I give the movie a 6/10 and I recommend it only to the genre fans.

Your girls are just garbage. No one will miss them.

[lastliberal-853-253708 · 6/10 · 23 December 2011]

Paul Naschy stars in a version of Frankenstein that features a bit more gore than the original.

He is a hunchback in love with a dying girl (María Elena Arpón), who is the only one who treats him decently.

After her death, he enlists the help of a mad scientist that promises to reanimate her. He is, however, only interested in creating life a la Dr. Frankenstein, and has Gotho (Naschy) running all over for body parts.

The film features decapitation, spilling guts, and rat scenes that are all the more creepy when you know they are real.

Fans of Eurohorror will find much to enjoy here.

THE HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE (Javier Aguirre, 1973) **

[Bunuel1976 · 5/10 · 23 January 2010]

This popular Paul Naschy title re-unites him with the director and two cast members (Rosanna Yanni and Vic Winner) of COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE (1972); unfortunately, it proved rather a let-down – largely because of its mix of unsavory themes (including necrophilia) and extreme gore (which comes across as unintentionally amusing most of the time). As was his fashion, the writer/star tackles the tragic (but not exactly sympathetic) title role: picked on by everybody (be it village children, morgue attendants and hospital staff), he naturally develops a vindictive attitude – eventually going off his rocker when a seriously ill girl he is infatuated with dies. For obscure plot purposes, a mad scientist (Alberto Dalbes) – driven to work underground – promises to revive her for him…except that the latter's assistants, offended by the ungodly sight and stench of her corpse (having been gnawed at by rats, which Naschy furiously sets on fire in retribution), dump her in the doctor's convenient vat of sulphuric acid (but have obviously reckoned without the hunchback's wrath which comes instantaneously)! Yanni plays the heroine, a young new intern, who somehow finds the misshapen Naschy appealing (for no very good reason, though she had displayed similar traits of nymphomania in the afore-mentioned Dracula film) and also on hand is Maria Perschy (like her, Dalbes and Antonio Mayans a Jess Franco alumnus) as the head of the hospital, whose boyfriend (Winner) happens to be the mad scientist's closest collaborator! Incidentally, what the two are working on – which Dalbes claims will turn all known scientific conceptions on their heads – only becomes evident until the closing reel: the sum total of their labor (to which many a human life has been sacrificed) results in a gigantic slimy creature(?!) not unlike the Swamp Thing of Wes Craven's eponymous 1982 release. As I said at the beginning, the film is generally too grim and the atmosphere too sordid to be readily enjoyed, what with dissections, beheadings, disembowelments, and even a couple of charred, half-dead characters – tied to one another but somehow still standing and able to walk!

Hungry for Love and it's Feeding Time!

[Coventry · 8/10 · 30 March 2011]

"The Hunchback of the Morgue" might just be Paul Naschy's – may he rest in peace – coolest movie! It's quite ironic that the Spanish horror icon became mostly notorious for his Wolf Man cycle, while actually his best movies have got absolutely nothing to do with lycanthropes or full moons. His werewolf flicks are fun enough, but personally I much more enjoyed "Inquisition", "Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll", "Rojo Sangre" and now especially this uniquely demented little exploitation treasure. "The Hunchback of the Morgue" has got it all: mad as hell scientists, deformed killers, gooey monsters, acid baths, corpse snatching, flesh munching, rancid decapitations and gigantic jars filled with entrails. Most remarkable, however, is that this gross and exploitative horror movie nevertheless manages to insert quite a lot of genuine drama and touching romance! Specifically during the first act the drama is harrowing. Gotho, employee in the local hospital's morgue and the laughing stock of the entire village because of the hideous lump on his back, is madly in love with the beautiful Ilse, basically just because she's the only person who treats him with dignity and kindness. But unfortunately Ilse has terminal tuberculosis and passes away whilst Gotho is being beaten up outside. Gotho goes to Dr. Orla for help, but he turns out to be a completely deranged amateur Baron Frankenstein. Orla commands our hunchbacked friend to steal bodies, dead and alive ones, and feeds them to his creation. This "thing" literally emerged from a jar of intestines on a desk, but quickly grows into an insatiable munching machine.

Okay, admittedly this may all sound a little confusing and incoherent. It is, actually! "The Hunchback of the Rue Morgue" unceasingly introduces new characters and add new plot lines until the finale and it's practically impossible to give an all-capturing summary of this film. The incoherence of the script isn't the least bit bothering, especially because the film is fast-paced and full of gory action the entire time. Gotho hacks off people's heads with axes, throws their bodies in acid and even locks them into medieval torture devices! And yet, even whilst he's committing the most vilest of murders, he manages to gain quite a bit of your sympathy and compassion. It's entirely Paul Naschy's own accomplishment to make his characters – even the most bonkers ones – come across as amiable and heroic. "The Hunchback of the Rue Morgue" is also a very effective horror film because the atmosphere is continuously morbid and practically all settings and scenery are sinister. Last but not least the film also "enjoys" a notorious reputation because one of the decapitation scenes was filmed using a real human corpse and because allegedly the rat-burnings were real as well.

Hot Rats

[ferbs54 · 7/10 · 12 March 2012]

From the jaunty circus music that plays during its opening credits to the closing shot of a steaming, bubbling pit of sulfuric acid, "The Hunchback of the Morgue," a Spanish offering from 1973, literally busts a gut to please the jaded horror fan. Cowritten and starring "The Boris Karloff of Spain," Paul Naschy, the film is a wildly over-the-top, cheesy affair that yet succeeds in its primary intentions: to stun and entertain the viewer. In it, Naschy plays the title character, Wolfgang Gotho, a hunchbacked janitor in the morgue of the Feldkirch Hospital, in what the viewer must infer is Germany, in modern times (although the film, with very minor revisions, could just as easily have been set 200 years ago). Shunned, reviled and even stoned by the town's populace, Gotho's only joy in life is bringing flowers to Ilse, a beautiful young woman in the hospital who is dying of some unspecified lung disease, and played by the luscious Maria Elena Arpon. When Ilse ultimately does expire, the distraught Gotho steals her body, hides it in the subterranean crypts (once a torturer's lair during the Inquisition) conveniently near the hospital, and asks the head man at Feldkirch, Dr. Orla (Alberto Dalbes), for assistance in bringing the dead lovely back to the land of the living. Orla agrees, but on one condition: that Gotho will help him in his experiments to create artificial life....

As I said, "THOTM" really goes out of its way to present itself as some kind of total horror show. The film boasts any number of satisfyingly tacky grossout effects, including some slit throats, various dismemberments, decapitations, a nasty ax blow to the stomach (as mentioned, literally busting a gut!), rats, rats on fire (apparently, some animals really WERE harmed in the making of this picture!), rats nibbling on corpses, acid-melted bodies, a gruesome iron-maiden spiking and on and on. The creature that Orla creates, at first shown as a large jar of quivering viscera feeding on human heads, ultimately morphs into yet another pleasing horror image: a humanoid entity that looks like a glob of melted mud! Naschy is quite fine as the simpleminded Gotho, even eliciting viewer sympathy for the grotesque character, despite his murderous tendencies; the early scenes between Gotho and Ilse are actually fairly touching, and even--dare I say it--a bit poetic! Besides the catchy circus music that opens the film, composer Carmelo Bernaola has also provided a morbid, dirgelike piece that permeates the picture very appropriately, and director Javier Aguirre does a better than competent job at creating an atmosphere of decay and unease. On a personal note, as an old fan of horror great H.P. Lovecraft, I must automatically give extra Brownie points to any film that mentions the "Necronomicon," as this one so cleverly does. "THOTM" may be some kind of perfect film to watch with your favorite 12-year-old nephew, who will surely delight at the loopiness of the plot and the film's many yucky visuals.

As for the Mya DVD that I recently viewed this picture on, it looks good enough, I suppose, if a tad dark in sections, but sports subtitles (for the English, Spanish and Italian language options) that have been very poorly rendered and, in spots, amusingly translated. Thus, in one scene, Elke--a beautiful psychologist at a women's prison from which Gotho is abducting some victims, and played by Rossana Yani--says to Gotho, "I'll medicate your wounds." But at least the DVD comes with more extras than you might expect to accompany a film of this nature. Bottom line: a highly pleasing horror outing, one that I have a, um, hunch that you'll enjoy, although not terribly scary. Indeed, the film's single most frightening scene might occur at the very outset: the sight of one of Gotho's future victims downing TWO gallon-sized glasses of beer in rapid succession. Now THAT'S scary!

Gruesome and depressing

[Groverdox · 4/10 · 3 February 2016]

Gotho is a hunchback with an intellectual disability who works in a morgue. Everyone humiliates him constantly with the exception of one young girl he has known since childhood. The girl is sickly though, and when his fellow mortuary assistants attempt to rob the corpse, Gotho turns murderous.

Noticing his abilities, a doctor at the local hospital begins to experiment with creating a new lifeform, a "primordial" grown from the bodies of the dead gathered for him by Gotho. The lifeform at first looks like a pile of squid innards resting in a large testtube, and there is a trap door leading to a pool of sulphuric acid in the laboratory floor. Gotho, despite his below average intelligence, supposedly created the lab himself; it looks like something a Bond villain would be at home in.

Ridiculous details like that aside, the movie is really too depressing to be all that much fun. It's one of the most gruesome movies Naschy made: one scene has him supposedly cutting up a real human corpse for the camera. The live rats being burnt to death was something we also really didn't need.

Gruesome Spanish horror film.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 8/10 · 1 April 2005]

Paul Naschy plays Wolfgang Gotho,a hunchback who supplies corpses to a doctor in his hidden underground morgue.The Doctor then feeds the rotted flesh to his creation of a living head attached to a tank full of guts.Gotho supplies corpses to the doctor in exchange for the promise that the doctor will restore life to the cadaver of his dead lover.This is surely Paul Naschy's best character role which won him awards at the Paris fantastic cinema convention in 1973."The Hunchback of the Morgue" is an extremely gory and atmospheric horror film that should please fans of Eurohorror.The evisceration of the doctor in the morgue,the beheading of the other doctor and the dismembering of the student from the inn are only a few of its gory moments.The locations sets(the catacombs)provide plenty of Gothic atmosphere and the acting is great.Still the scene where Gotho burns the rats feasting on Ilsa's body is pretty disturbing,because apparently real animals were killed during it.Overall,"El Jorobado de la Morgue" is definitely not for everybody.The film is quite explicit in its gore,but if you like Spanish exploitation flicks give this one a look.8 out of 10.

Not too good

[hswasserman · 3/10 · 8 March 2024]

It's a great title anyway, the perfect marriage of classic cinema tropes and more modern and more gruesome sensibilities. The movie itself is mostly a terrible mess.

Naschy plays Gotho the stupid hunchback who loves a girl with tuberculosis. A mad scientist schemes to create some hideous new life form while fooling Gotho into helping him find victims to help construct and feed the monster.

I saw the version which is currently available on Tubi. It is about an hour and twenty minutes or so long and is likely missing some footage but it's a fairly pristine print. More than I can say for most of the Naschy films I've seen around lately which have all been in simply ghastly condition. But whereas the film looks good and appears to contain genuine footage of castle ruins the sound is not good. The dubbing is abominable but bad dubbing is not unamusing sometimes. One often hears the whirring of some machine, possibly a very noisy camera, I don't know. The music in the film is both cheesy and impressive. I can't imagine where they got it from. The dialogue must be heard to be believed. I thought Star Trek was full of ridiculous techno babble but it's nothing compared to what you get here. I never heard such pseudo scientific mumbo jumbo in all my life. Possibly there is a version of the film in the original Spanish with English subtitles. If so it would probably be superior to what I saw.

By the time we get near the end where over and again you hear the monster yelling from behind a closed door surely even the most tolerant of trashy film fans will have had enough. I had not heard such ululations since the 1976 King Kong remake.

There are worse ways to spend an hour and twenty minutes but if you don't see this film you'll be doing yourself a favor.

Very enjoyable... In a ghoulish way

[floyd-27 · 5 September 2000]

This was a great little flick. Paul Naschy (Spanish answer to Lon Chaney) puts in a very convincing role as a hunchbacked morgue attendant. The story was nice and strong with relatively believable acting, to a small degree.

The violence also was'nt that bad either. All you gore mongers should take note of this small fact.

The only real downer was that damn stock music! It just churned out, over, and over... I was just about ready to scream after hearing the same piece for the 50th time

pure Eurotrash famous for animal cruelty

[trashgang · 5/10 · 1 August 2013]

Nowadays after the death of Paul Naschy suddenly his flicks are becoming available in boxes. Naschy was hated by so many people but it's typically, when you're death you become famous. And so it went for Naschy. Back in the eighties and even the nineties it was almost a conspiracy to keep Naschy as obscure as possible in the US. Been seen in so many European flicks most of them became unavailable or were even rare to find. But once the era of VHS was over slowly his flicks came out on DVD. Still, a lot aren't out but The Hunchback Of The Morgue is out there. It's notorious for one reason, animal cruelty.

Coming from Spain and being featured in many Spanish flicks most of those Eurotrash flicks are badly dubbed or are out on expensive Japanese VHS releases full uncut because that's the trouble with Naschy's flicks. Being famous in Spain just like Lee in the UK or Price in the US Naschy's flicks were mostly cut due the nudity involved in his flicks. Most collectors know Naschy from his portraying of the tragic lycanthrope, Count Waldemar. Here Naschy is just a retarded hunchback searching for the girl he loves.

Also out as The Rue Morgue Massacres in fact this flick has nothing to do with Poe's story. The release under that title was made by All Seasons VHS label and they just didn't care at all that Rue Morgue had nothing to do with a morgue but was a French street not even mentioned in this flick. He was just a hunchback working at a morgue. He is hated and victim of abuse and insults in his hometown but only one person understands him, a sick girl dying of TBC. He visits her every day in the hospital and brings her fresh flowers. One day he arrives when she just has died and he notices that students are trying to remove jewelery from the corpse. In a fury he kills them. The slaughtering is shown in a rather gory way with decapitation and disemboweling scenes. I was rather surprised by the way it was shown. Even intestines are shown. But the most notorious part comes a few moments later when the corpse is being attacked by rats. The rats were the real thing used in this flick but Goto (Naschy) sets them on fire. And that part made this flick famous for setting rats on fire shown in front of the camera. A thing nowadays is impossible.

From there on Goto is provided shelter by a mad doctor who promise him to bring back the girl who died (Frankenstein story). From there on a monster is created with the help of corpses and living girls captured by Goto and the use of a secret lab and of course the bubbling acid bath.

What's so weird is that most releases do show the rats running around being burned alive but the love scene being cut out. Be sure to catch the full uncut.

Gore 2/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

The Sublime Tale of Quasimodo Naschy

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 9/10 · 18 July 2009]

Is "The Hunchback of the Morgue" the greatest film of Spanish Exploitation icon Paul Naschy? One of the greatest without a doubt, and probably my personal favorite, as this highly atmospheric, creepy and incredibly entertaining Gothic gem unites all qualities that we love about Naschy flicks. Personally, I've been a fan of the prolific Spanish Horror deity for years, and while most of his films don't usually qualify as 'good', they are usually immensely entertaining. Javier Aguirre's "El Jorobado De La Morgue" aka. "The Hunchback of the Morgue" of 1973 was a fantastic surprise to me, as this wonderful little film is both entertaining in the typical Naschy-manner, AND an actually very good film of its own right. One of the great aspects about Naschy flicks is that they usually unite the creepy mood and settings of atmospheric Gothic tales with typical exploitation qualities such as gore and sleaze, and, out of all his films I've seen, this one is the greatest example for that. My admiration for "The Hunchback of the Morgue" may seem exaggerated to some, for a film like this that is doubtlessly not flawless. It is, however, a rare film that is so successful in creating a rich and genuinely creepy atmosphere, the intriguing storyline of a classic Horror tale and typical exploitation qualities from an obviously low budget as this one does.

"The Hunchback of the Morgue" terrifically narrates a traditional Horror story in the delightful form of a Creepy and quite gory Naschyesque Gothic Exploitation flick. In classic Horror tradition, the eponymous hunchback Gotho (Naschy) is a murderous yet tragic, pitiable and almost likable character. A man of low intelligence and ugly appearance, Gotho, who works at the morgue, is despised by most people, except the beautiful Ilse (María Elena Arpón). Driven by his immortal love to this terminally ill beauty, Gotho responds to kindness with kindness, to humiliation with murderous violence. The obsessed scientist Dr. Orla (Alberto Dalbes) decides to use the hunchback for his sinister goals...

No role has ever suited Paul Naschy better than that of the eponymous hunchback Gotho. Naschy seems predestined to play morgue employees and gravediggers - in the runner-up on the list of my favorite Naschy-films, "La Orgia De Los Muertos" from the same year, he plays a deranged gravedigger. The role of Gotho here is, in my opinion, the greatest he ever played, since he is truly deranged, yet at the same time pitiable and even likable. Jess Franco flick regular Alberto Dalbés is great in the role of the unscrupulous scientist. The supporting performances are actually also very good for a film of the kind. The ravishing Rosanna Yanni is sexy and lovable in the role of Elke, a woman who, unlike others, treats the hunchback with kindness. The film is terrifically shot in the great setting of a small town in the mountains (in the film, the name is "Feldkirch", but I don't think it is meant to be the town of the same name in my home country Austria). Settings like old houses, dark alleys, castle ruins, subterranean crypts and secret passages give the film a great Gothic mood, which is increased by a very good cinematography and score. The gore is pretty intense, with some truly gruesome scenes. The film isn't actually very sleazy, nudity occurs only once, briefly, by Rosanna Yanni (***drool***). It is undeniable that the plot has holes and sometimes lacks logic - but that has to be expected in a Naschy flick. Overall, "The Hunchback of the Morgue" is, in my opinion, the Naschy film that has the greatest storyline AND the most intense atmosphere. The mood often resembles the style of other Gothic films, such as those by the British Hammer Studios, but, again, with a typically Spanish touch. All things considered, "The Hunchback of the Morgue" is my personal favorite Paul Naschy film, and also one of the most outrageously enjoyable Spanish Gothic Horror productions from the early 70s. No true lover of cult-cinema should miss it!

All I Want For Christmas is Gotho

[accattone74 · 10/10 · 21 July 2015]

The Hunchback of the Morgue is a wonderful film with a great pace, an engaging story, some outrageous gore, and real scares. As the doomed and misbegotten Gotho, Naschy gives one of his finest dramatic performances – it earned him a well-deserved prize at Sitges, and I think it would've even made Karloff or Chaney, Sr. proud. Naschy is able to make Gotho, an utterly clueless and abused hunchback/morgue-janitor, a sympathetic character despite possessing a nasty, vicious temper, and being both an accomplice to serious crime, and a latent necrophiliac. Naturally, I think he's quite adorable, and with Naschy writing the script, so does the leading lady, regular co-star Rosanna Yanni. The real villain of the film is one Dr. Orla (homage/rip at Jess Franco or Generalissimo Franco?) who takes full and horrible advantage of Gotho's hardships; Orla (excellently portrayed by genre-veteran Alberto Dalbes) leads Gotho down a truly sickening path involving corpse robbing (or corpse-creating) and some absolutely ungodly experiments. The film's climax shocked me when I first saw it – I wasn't expecting it to be so frightening. There's a build-up throughout the film as to what the experiment-generated monster actually looks like, and unlike most cases of this device, it ultimately pays off in spades. The gore and make-up is fabulous, as is the sound effect for the monster (it still sends chills down my spine to think of it). The Hunchback of the Morgue is a real benchmark of Spanish Horror, and certainly one of Naschy's career. But be warned, this film does contain a scene (it's most notorious) where real rats were burned alive.

Classic Naschy film

[matt zodiac · 10 February 2002]

Paul Naschy is great in this gory and old-fashioned horror flick. He plays the soft-spoken and (initially) gentle morgue attendant who is in love with a terminally ill patient in the hospital. She is the only person in the hospital who is nice to him, and he brings her flowers every day until she inevitably dies, and ends up in the morgue. Naschy loses it, and takes her corpse into a hidden cave. Once a mad doctor discovers Naschy's secret, he blackmails him into supplying bodies for his ghoulish experiments. This film is imaginative and fun. In one scene, Naschy is attacked by lots of (real) rats. There's plenty of gore too, and the ending is outrageous.

Not bad at all....

[joshjack-35680 · 9/10 · 7 October 2018]

Paul naschy was a legendary horror icon. Especially being the werewolf of Spain. Bit hes known for a lot more than characterizing a werewolf and it shows in this film playing a hunchback. This film has its fair share of gore and blood ( the mya comm. Release didn't lie on the back cover) i won't give anything away on this film if there are people who haven't seen this. I recommend it if you're a naschy fan like me

I have a hunch a great number of rabid Naschy fans will stoop to nothing to get their furry mitts on a spankingly new Blu-ray copy of 'The Hunchback of The Morgue'.

[Weirdling_Wolf · 9/10 · 12 June 2021]

Spain's brawny, stridently bellicose B-Movie maestro Paul Naschy became renowned for delivering full-blooded, brainstormingly vivid performances strongly evoking the golden age of Universal Horror. This muscular, Mediterranean master of movie macabre made effective use of his almost alchemical acting prowess in 'The Hunchback of The Morgue'. Wherein his misshapen, humpbacked, morgue-dwelling misanthrope proves to be yet another triumph for this terror-tripping titan of the silver scream! This lumbering, severely stooped servile wretch is treated as a pariah, frequently disparaged by the local villagers, and cruelly harassed by children. Paul Naschy's Goto will stoop to nothing to get his bloody revenge upon his cold-hearted tormentors, and those callous individuals who so vociferously mocked his ailing lady love Ilse (María Elena Arpón).

Director Javier and mercurial writer and star Paul Naschy have taken the grisliest ideas from E. C Comics along with their own idiosyncratic horror sensibilities to create a gallopingly gory monster movie classic! The vengeful, grief-stricken Goto aids his erstwhile mentor, the increasingly maniacal Dr. Orla (Alberto Dalbés)in his Promethean and resolutely immoral obsession to create new sentient life from some alien plasmoid of his own mad creation!

Javier Aguirre's tremendously bloody, gore-iously retrograde splatter sickie 'Hunchback of the Morgue' deserves to be exhumed from the musty catacombs of celluloid obscurity. Goto remains one grisly-groovy, girl-crazy Ghoul, and his eerie, subterranean escapades are an exquisite delight! Paul Naschy's singular genius, like Karloff before him, is to engender his gruesome characters with enormous pathos. I have a hunch a great number of rabid Naschy fans will stoop to nothing to get their furry mitts on a spankingly new Blu-ray copy of 'The Hunchback of The Morgue'.

Spanish comic-book horror sleaze (slightly spoiler-ish)

[EyeAskance · 1 November 2007]

Paul Naschy plays a hunchback morgue attendant who loves a terminally ill woman. When she dies, he takes her body to a filthy subterranean torture chamber(where rats eat away her face), and implores a nut-case scientist to resurrect her. He agrees, and the two begin an experiment which(naturally) requires various body parts(donated generously by murder victims). Said experiment yields a mushy, growling primordial entity, ever-starved for human flesh.

This over-the-top cheap thrill ride plays out like a classic vintage horror melodrama, but is loaded with pretty gross gore spots. A weird and worthy slice of old-school film trash. As they say-- they sure don't make them like this anymore.

5.5/10

Extremely grisly shocker is one of Naschy's very best

[Leofwine_draca · 10/10 · 4 August 2016]

A superior Spanish shocker, which charts the life of a hunchback as he is abused by some and falls in love with others. However, being an X-rated horror flick, heavy lashings of gore and general grisliness are added into the mix, to create unforgettable moments and alleviate from the otherwise routine story. The film's strength lies in the evocative and moving musical score, which really helped to set the scene for me, and the atmospheric location of the underground cavern which is brimming with Gothic dread and foreboding. Paul Naschy takes the lead role and brings life and sympathy to his anti-hero, a villain who is drawn into his acts either as a last resort or as a result of someone else's evil.

What could have been just another brutal monster turns out to be a pathetic but deeply just and noble person; moments of Naschy kissing the feet of those he appreciates are at odds to shots of him brutally murdering numerous victims, and in the end Naschy's strong acting means that you can't help but like him, even if he is a multiple murderer and sadist! The strong Spanish supporting cast includes Alberto Dalbes' fine performance as a deranged and evil scientist, genre regular Maria Perschy as a doctor and Rosanna Yanni as a genuinely beautiful love interest - yes, even a hunchback can love!

Once again, this Naschy film's strength is in the numerous plot strands and ideas that it throws into the mix to keep it going nicely. As well as the character study of Gotho, the film includes romance and sex and themes of power and its abuse. The horror elements are also varied and interesting. The film begins with a scene of a corpse being bloodily cut up with a knife and doesn't get any easier to take from there! Corpses have their faces eaten apart by rats, there's a string of gore murders, hijinks involving a severed head, grave-robbing, and a mad scientist, and a convenient acid bath into which many characters fall and are lovingly dissolved in detail. One of my favourite aspects is the monster in the cellar which screams and cries with terrible noises, really building up the unseen terror. When it finally escapes to go on a rampage, the slimy humanoid creature doesn't disappoint in special effects either.

The gore is over-the-top and extremely explicit, even for a Naschy movie. Characters are decapitated and eviscerated (guts everywhere), strangled, dissolved, spiked in iron maidens, have their faces destroyed with acid, and mutilated. However, the film's most unpleasantly memorable scene doesn't involve any special effects whatsoever - yes, it's an unfaked scene of animal violence! This mondo madness occurs when Gotho discovers rats eating his girlfriend and attacks them with a torch (Naschy himself was famously bitten during this ordeal). Cue lots of shots of scampering, squealing, and burning rats; for a rodent lover such as myself, these scenes are really quite hard to take and unnecessarily long with it! Thankfully this is the only example of mondo violence in the film - and in Naschy's long career also.

Otherwise, the action/fight scenes are well-staged and exciting, the acting pretty good all things considered, the effects good, and the atmosphere and suspense strong. Worth checking out for all genre fans and a must-see film for Naschy followers in particular, this more than stands up against the best of his Waldemar Daninsky - werewolf output. Highly recommended.

Hunchback of the Morgue

[Michael_Elliott · 12 March 2008]

Hunchback of the Morgue (1972)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A deformed hunchback (Paul Naschy) is picked on by everyone except for a beautiful woman. When that woman dies the hunchback goes to a scientist in hopes that he can bring her back to life. The doctor says he can but in return he wants the hunchback to do some killing for him.

Loosely based on Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue, the film also mixes in elements of Frankenstein and the end result is a rather entertaining movie that works on several levels but the biggest is the fact that the movie is just downright nasty at times and it takes pleasure in it. HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE offers Naschy a tasty role and he really delivers.

The film works best as long as you don't take it too serious or go into it expecting some sort of art film. I mean, the movie is pretty sleazy throughout but things get really crazy during the second half when we get all sorts of strange violence from body parts being cut off to guts pour out and there are even rats eating faces. All of the gore is handled quite well and the overall sleazy nature of it perfect fits the atmosphere of the movie as well as the beautiful set design.

As far as Naschy goes, he got to play just about every monster possible and this here was certainly his most sympathetic role, which is shocking when you consider that this character is a murderer. I thought the actor did a very good job in the role and the sympathetic nature was a major plus. The supporting cast are all fine as well but there's no question that the picture belongs to Naschy.